Against All Odds
by green eyed typhoon
Summary: Alice Joy, a rookie trainer determined to fight for her dream and become a powerful pokemon trainer regardless of the expectations placed on her by others. Maya Stone, a bitter and lonely ronin trainer. Wandering from place to place without purpose or direction, keeping no company other than her team. The meeting between these two will irrevocably change both of their lives.
1. Setting the Scene

The Viridian Forest. A massive forest of huge trees so large that rarely does the light breach the forest floor. It is a home to many bug and flying type pokemon attracting novice trainers and bug catchers from miles around. It is a relatively safe area with a clear path bridging the gap between Viridian and Pewter City as expected of a common walking path of young trainers. It is considered almost a rite of passage for beginning trainers to travel through this forest in the search of a gym battle with the Pewter City Gym leader. However, if one were to stray from the path they would find incredible danger in the form of large and violently territorial swarms of Beedrill. Rookie trainer Alice Joy was currently in the process of becoming intimately familiar with this danger.

A young pink haired girl of around 15 was running through the forest at full speed. The only sounds were the cracking of branches and her labored breathing, as well as an ominous buzzing that seemed to get louder and louder no matter how fast she ran. Gasping and choking on sobs she ran on, heedless of the scrapes and bruises she was gathering from the whipping branches half blinded by sheer terror.

'I don't want to die!'

That was the only thought in her head as she barreled deeper into the forest, anything to escape what was chasing her. She had just started her journey! She had finally gathered the courage to follow her dream and try to achieve something for herself. After all that she was going to be cut short right at the beginning of her journey?

'I don't wanna die! Please let me live please please plea-'

Her hysteria was cut short as the inevitable happened and she tripped. The world seemed to slow as she fell down. This was it? This is how it ends? Vaguely she could here that terrible buzzing sound again. It sounded closer than ever. Time resumed as she fell to the ground, tumbling harshly down an unseen dip and rolling through some bushes into a clearing. Alice lay there stunned and breathless unable to move despite so desperately needing too. She blinked her eyes open groaning in pain as she stared blearily into the dim light that just barely managed to penetrate the canopy. The buzzing was now more of a rumble. Slowly she struggled to her knees. She felt tears stream down her face as she stared as her pursuers finally caught up to her revealed themselves breaking into the valley and revealing a swarm of angry Beedrill. There was nothing she could do. She was just a beginning trainer, her pokemon were injured and so was she. This was how it ended? She closed her eyes one last time and choked back a sob as she head the Beedrill let out a victorious buzz and rushed towards her. She clenched her fists and prepared for pain.

….

….

5 seconds. 10. Where was the pain?

Slowly, cautiously, she opened her eyes. Barely a squint. And then her eyes flew open wide in shock as what she was seeing finally processed. The entire swarm of over 20 Beedrill were being held at bay by a translucent yellow force field.

'Barrier?' Her thought was slow and muddled, warring between hope and disbelief. 'But where did it come from?' She cast her gaze around the small clearing looking for the source of the psychic type move that had saved her life and finally noticed that she was not alone. She felt her eyes widen as she looked upon the other person in the clearing. The one that had just saved her life. She was tall, probably at least 5'9'' and had long dark brown hair styled in dreadlocks. Her vision started to fade before she could get a closer look. The adrenaline was finally wearing off now that she was safe; the stress from the terror and the fall finally took its toll on her body and she slumped to the side; the last things she heard was the voice of her savior, a voice rough with disuse but not unpleasant to listen to.

"Nix. Kinkou, attack."


	2. First Impressions

Alice woke with a groan. Wincing in pain she opened her eyes slowly and waited for things to come into focus. The vague fuzzy world slowly came into focus and she found herself looking up into a pair of wide curious red eyes uncomfortably close to her face. Alice yelped loudly in surprise and quickly scrambled backwards.

Her sudden movement startled her observer who let out her own chirp of surprise and jumped backwards easily clearing a distance of three meters to land lightly on one foot.

Alice blinked in surprise and took in the appearance of what she now realized to be a pokemon. It was a short pokemon with red eyes, green hair, red horns, and a white tutu.

'A Kirlia?' Alice thought in confused shock. That was a pretty rare pokemon and to see one, especially in the Kanto region was a huge surprise.

The Kirlia continued to look at her curiously and was about to approach her again when it was interrupted.

"Serre." The voice that interrupted the pokemon was slightly rough as though the speaker didn't have much cause to speak, despite that the voice was unmistakably female.

"Go play with Nix" the woman told the Kirlia who seemed to pout a bit before nodding and dancing over to her trainer.

'Nix? Another pokemon maybe?' Alice thought in a daze trying to get her bearings as she looked toward the direction of the voice. She looked over to the other girl who was clearly the trainer of the psychic pokemon who'd given her such a rude awakening.

She had somewhat of a rough appearance, as though it had been a while since she was last in a city or town. Somewhat tall for a woman Alice guessed that she was probably a few years older than herself. She had long brown hair styled in dreadlocks decorated with a multitude of metal rings and wooden beads braided into her hair. She had a deep tan probably from long time traveling judging by the roughened state of her clothes. Alice couldn't help but be impressed and a little jealous as she noticed the toned arms of someone that clearly took care of their body with some sort of physical exercise. She found herself blinking in surprise as she noticed a scar across the bridge of the mysterious trainers nose and wondered what caused it.

Alice was distracted from her inspection when she noticed the Kirlia doing something strange. Having made her way to her trainers side she giggled lightly before bending down and poking her trainers shadow?

'What?' Alice looked on in confusion not entirely sure what the psychic type was trying to accomplish only to gasp in shock as a dark shape slowly started to rise from the trainers shadow.

'What the hell?!'

She watched enraptured as the shape slowly formed into something recognizable and gasped again when she realized what it was.

'A mismagius' she thought in awe. That was another rare pokemon not usually found in Kanto. It looked powerful too. Just who was this girl?

The ghost type looked at her curiously before gazing questioningly at her trainer who merely tilted her head towards the other end of the clearing. Nodding in understanding the Mismagius turned to the waiting Kirlia who by now seemed impatient and grinned before tapping the psychic type on the head and flew away echoing eerie laughter behind her. The Kirlia giggled cutely and danced after her in an impromptu game of tag.

Alice watched the two pokemon play together looking on dazed at the Mismagius conjured colorful ghostly lights to the delight of the Kirlia. Slowly she dragged her eyes from the distracting sight and looked toward the other trainer who was looking down at her expressionlessly eyes evaluating. Alice blushed as she realized she didn't even know the name of the person who'd saved her life.

"I'm Alice!" The words blurted out her mouth almost a shout before she could stop them. She winced blushing furiously in embarrassment.

"Thank you, for saving me. Earlier from the Beedrill swarm. I would've been a goner without you" she chuckled sheepishly looking hopefully up to the taller girl hoping for some sort of reaction.

…

"Are you an idiot?"

Okay. So, maybe not the reaction she was hoping for. She blinked at the other girl not really sure how to respond to the blunt statement.

"Because only an idiot would think it a smart idea to veer from the path and straight into a Beedrill hive when they are clearly a novice trainer" the dread locked girl continued voice flat as though not really interested in this conversation.

Alice couldn't help but blush in shame and she felt like apologizing for some reason. She squirmed uncomfortably under the intimidating gaze of the other girl unable to respond.

They stayed like that for about half a minute before the other girl seemingly realized that she wasn't going to speak rolled her eyes upward and took a deep breath.

"Maya"

'Huh?' Alice thought in confusion.

"My name" the girl continued.

'Oh!' Alice thought in surprise. She looked over the other trainer again taking in her exotic appearance from her green eyes, dreadlocked hair, tanned skin, and the light pink scar that went horizontally across the bridge of her nose. Maya, it certainly fit she thought. She watched the other girl slowly raise a brow in expectation and Alice felt herself blush as she realized she had yet to offer her own name.

"Alice" she mumbled cursing herself for her awkwardness. She usually wasn't the shy wall flower type.

"Alice" Maya spoke almost to herself as though to imprint it in her memory.

"Well Alice, what were you dong wandering around with only two probably lower leveled pokemon to watch out for you?" she inquired gesturing to the two pokeballs hanging on her belt.

"Oh! Well, I was actually catching my second pokemon" Alice replied half in embarrassment and half pride. Because even if it almost ended tragically it was still the first pokemon she had caught on her own. It was a major milestone in any trainers career and a rite of passage for newbie trainers to signify the first real tangible step on their journey to become great.

"Are they okay?" Maya inquired though Alice still couldn't tell if she really cared or not.

"Oh, well they should be. I didn't let them out to fight the swarm. My starter isn't strong enough to face so many of them at once and I didn't want to chance using my new pokemon before training them" Alice explained as she reached down to her belt and prepared to let out her pokemon and ensure for herself they were alright. She tossed both the balls in the air and released her pokemon who let out their own cries upon appearing.

"Chop!"

"Bzzzz!"

The light faded to reveal a Machop and a Beedrill looking around in confusion at the unknown people and pokemon near their trainer.

"This is Maya, she saved us."

At the reassurance from their trainer the pokemon relaxed their guard and the machop walked over to his trainer while the Beedrill began flying around to stretch out its wings.

"This is Hercules" Alice told Maya pointing at the machop, he's my first pokemon.

"I've had him since I was 9 years old and that's Simon" she spoke referring to the Beedrill.

"Catching him is what caused the swarm to come after me in the first place."

* * *

><p>Maya looked from the two pokemon to the girl she had saved and really looked at her for the first time. She had pink hair styled in a ponytail going slightly below hear shoulder blades with two bangs framing a heart shaped face and possibly the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She found herself unsure of how to interact with this person whom knowingly or not had intruded on her solitude. She wasn't used to being around other humans, spending so much time travelling from place to place never stopping anywhere long had left her unpracticed in social interaction. Besides, she'd always gotten along better with her pokemon anyway.<p>

A soothing presence filled her mind and eased her tension and Maya found herself relaxing a fist she hadn't realized she'd made. Apparently she was more out of practice than she'd thought if just listening to the girl babble on about her pokemon was enough to fill her with such tension. She made sure to send back a general sense of gratitude and thankfulness to her faithful starter whose psychic abilities while not as powerful as Serre's were potent in their own right and completely mastered. With a barely perceptible sigh she refocused on Alice who was talking animatedly about her machop.

"What were you doing in the forest anyway? Aside from bug catchers there really isn't a lot of thru traffic here"

Alice stopped mid-sentence at the interruption looking surprised but quickly perked up at the thought of what she was doing and what it would mean for her.

"I'm heading down to Pallet Town to see Professor Oak. I have to get officially registered as a pokemon trainer so I can officially start my journey and partake in the gym challenge!" she spoke earnestly, excited at the very thought.

"You know you can get that done at any pokecenter right? Most people don't visit the professor for registration unless they need a starter pokemon and you already have two."

At that true statement Alice couldn't contain a wince.

"That's not really an option for me" she replied and didn't elaborate.

Maya looked at the pinkette skeptically but didn't comment, it really wasn't her business anyway. She idly wondered why she cared enough to ask in the first place. While she wasn't exactly heartless enough to leave an unconscious girl alone in a hostile forest she really didn't feel a need to stay either now that she was awake. Her good deed for the day was done and she wasn't one for company, she wasn't good at it nor did she really want it. Maya had been alone with her pokemon for nearly 5 years now and that was generally how she preferred it. She opened her mouth to give some sort of goodbye before heading on her way when she was interrupted.

"Will you come with me?"

Maya started in shock at the question and Alice looked just as surprised at the words that came out of her mouth. However she seemed to quickly warm up to the idea.

"Please? I know it's a hassle and you probably have other things going on but after running so long I'm sort of lost and I'm worried my pokemon won't be enough to protect me while I'm off the main path."

She looked hopefully into the jade eyes of the reticent trainer whose company she found herself in and ignored the insulted grumblings of her machop at the thought he wouldn't be enough to protect his trainer.

"You don't even know me" protested the older girl.

"You saved me though, and your pokemon clearly care for you."

As though to emphasize her point the young Kirlia who had been playing with the Mismagius in the background skipped over to hug her trainer from behind giggling lightly.

Alice smiled at the sight what she now realized was a fairly young pokemon evolved or not hugging her trainer who stood stiffly, awkward and unsure at the contact.

"That's really all I need to know."

Maya just stared at the other girl not really sure how to respond. She was just about to refuse when she caught sight of her eyes. The deep blue was full of hope and nervousness, but underneath that was actual worry. Maya groaned internally.

'God dammit.'

She really was worried about her safety. Maya may not be the best around other people, or really even want to be around other people. But she had taken responsibility for the novice trainer when she protected her from the Beedrill swarm and it wouldn't do to let that work go to waste by letting her wander off now. And it's not like she had anywhere to go. As a ronin trainer she was a wanderer by nature, not set goals or destination.

Still….

She wasn't exactly sure how to say yes. Saying yes would mean sharing her life however briefly with another person and all that entailed. Something she hadn't done outside her pokemon for nearly 5 years. Maya found herself frozen in indecision knowing the answer she should give but unsure as to how to give it. She rubbed her thumb across the scar on her nose as she often did when unsure or stressed when she felt a pokeball at her belt wobble slightly and burst open in a flash oflight.

Once the glowing dimmed down it revealed a short pink humanoid pokemon that looked like a yoga practitioner. He looked at his trainer ignoring the fascinated gaze of their guest.

"Jinkou" she mumbled in surprise and relief.

Maya found herself calm instantly at the presence of her first companion. She looked down to the dark eyes of her first pokemon whom she'd had since childhood. He looked back at her unfaltering and calm. A solid mountain of reassurance that she'd come to depend on. He never let problems affect him and held a deep unwavering confidence both in himself and his trainer. Not for the first time Maya found herself envious of her starters. Staring into calm confident gaze of her first partner Maya found the strength to answer.

"Yes."

Alice stopped staring at the pokemon she vaguely recognized as a psychic and fighting hybrid from the Hoenn region but couldn't remember the name of at the sound of Maya's response. She realized something profound was going on between the two but she ignored that in favor of the joy and relief she experienced on hearing Maya acquiesce to her request. She felt safer in the presence of the clearly strong trainer guarded as she might be and was incredibly relieved to be in her company for the rest of the journey. Moreover she found herself very interested in the mysterious woman who'd come to her rescue and was glad for a chance to get to know her better.

Alice grinned cheerily.

"Really? That's great! Thank you so much Maya!"

Without warning and filled with gratitude she gave the other girl a quick hug. Maya stiffened instantly at the contact. Both unused to it and not expecting it from someone she had basically just met. Stepping backward out of the hug she cleared her throat awkwardly struggling for what to say while looking at the girl beaming happily up at her.

"Right, well we should get some sleep then. It's getting pretty late"

Maya gestured vaguely to indicate the darkening forest.

"We should set up our sleeping bags and then we can head for Pallet Town in the morning. Nix can keep watch, as a ghost type she doesn't really need to sleep and she's more than strong enough to face anything we're likely to find in this forest" Maya explained awkwardly.

At her words the pokemon in question phased into existence suddenly right in front of Alice's face snickering as she flinched and fell onto her butt. Serre immediately began scolding her fellow team member while Jinkou looked on in amusement,

Rolling her eyes at the antics of her ghost type she reached down and easily pulled Alice back up to her feet.

Blushing from embarrassing herself infront of the other trainer Alice immediately agreed to their plan and headed over to a tree where Maya had set her gear while she was unconscious tugging along Hercules behind her who was glaring angrily at the Mismagius. He took his trainers safety very seriously.

Maya gave another sigh as she watched Alice walk off to set up for the night her machop trailing along after her grumbling darkly no doubt about Nix. She looked past the Mismagius who was still being lectured by Serre looking utterly unrepentant to Jinkou who looked back at her with amusement.

She looked up to the darkening sky shrouded by the forest trees.

"Just what have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

><p><em>Authors Notes – <em>Chapter 2, more just setting the scene sorta stuff.

We learn more about why Alice was in the forest and where she was going, met some pokemon, and met the enigmatic yet clearly powerful trainer Maya s who will be the other main character of the story. Hopefully some questions were answered in this chapter and feel free to review I would really appreciate it and I'll see you all next chapter.

_Maya's Team_ -

Jinkou (Medicham): A term meaning balance. Medicham are known for their intense meditation and there deep understanding of both themselves and in a fight their opponent. So much so that they are often able to predict their opponents moves before their opponent themselves know what they are going to do. A calm and self-assured pokemon with a solid personality the idea of balance is an apt description for such a pokemon.

Nix (Mismagius): Nix by definition means 'nothing.' If spelled with a "y" Nyx can be seen as a reference to the Greek goddess of the night who is found in the shadows of the world and seen only rarely in glimpses. Finally nix is also the name of a moon that orbits Pluto. All in all it is a fitting name for a ghost type pokemon.

Serre (Kirlia): Pronounced sehr-ay it is a word used in ballet to describe the fast beating of the foot against the ankle of the other foot. Her name is the reference to the dancer like qualities seen in the Ralts evolutionary line.

_Alice's Team_ –

Hercules (Machop): Reference to the demigod renowned for his unmatchable strength. He's got some growing to do but eventually he'll be able to live up to the name.

Simon (Beedrill): I chose the name Simon as a nod to the character Simon the Digger from Gurren Lagann which heavily featured the theme of drills in various ways. "Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!" This Beedrill certainly has a lot to live up to.


End file.
